Latino parents care and school funding matters

Rogelio Sáenz, For the Express-News

August 13, 2017

Photo: Carol Kaliff /Hearst Connecticut Media

Betty Samaniego and son Diego Cambizaca, 3, laugh as they play with building blocks during a weekly class offered by The United Way of Western Connecticut. The class is a pilot program for the largely-Latino neighborhood around the Park Avenue Elementary School to teach parents how to be the primary educators of their children. Studies indicate Latino parents understand the importance of education for their children.

Betty Samaniego and son Diego Cambizaca, 3, laugh as they play with...

Re: “Poverty not barrier to education,” John Menchaca, Another View, August 5:

John Menchaca argues that poverty should not be used as an excuse for the low educational levels of Latinos. He further places blame on Latino parents for not believing that education is important.

Menchaca’s image of Latino parents does not jibe with the data. According to a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2015, 86 percent of Latino parents indicated that it is important or very important for their children to earn a college degree, compared to 79 percent of African American and 67 percent of white parents.

And a national survey conducted by the Leadership Conference Education Fund earlier this year observed that Latino parents have high educational expectations for their children, want them to have access to a quality education, and want them to have the opportunity to take challenging courses.

Latino parents, like other parents, want the best education for their children and see it as the key to a successful future.

Opinion

Menchaca asserts that more money is not the answer. Why is it alright for well-off parents to demand more funds for their children’s schools, but not acceptable for poorer parents to ask the same for their children? Yet, the Texas school funding system, described by the Texas Supreme Court as “Byzantine” but still satisfying “minimum constitutional requirements,” undercuts Latino and African American children who disproportionately attend poorly funded and ill-equipped schools.

As long as far-right politicians continue neglecting the education of Latino and African American children, the existing disparities will not disappear. Of course, for many people it is easier to blame poor Latino parents rather than a powerful political system served by well-heeled politicians for persistent educational inequities.

Rogelio Sáenz is dean of the College of Public Policy and Mark G. Yudof Endowed Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is the co-author of Latinos in the United States: Diversity and Change.